The invention relates to electrical connectors having two connection blocks that are pluggable into each other, and it relates more particularly to a connection block for such a connector which is of the so-called "modular" type. The connector comprises a rectangular housing with two opposite faces having longitudinal projections that delimit parallel sideways and flat slabs of insulating material, each slab occupying one of said slideways and including a single row of parallel passages for receiving contact terminals, and having a large face cut out in a front portion thereof to constitute individual retaining detents for the terminals that engage in holes in the terminals, the housing and each slab including cooperating keying means that allow a slab to be fully inserted in one orientation only.
A block of the above-defined kind can easily be designed to incorporate slabs giving contact terminal distribution pitches that vary from one slab to another (but naturally are equal for the two cooperating slabs of the two blocks of a same connector). It is also possible to omit some of the slabs in applications where the corresponding terminals are not required. All of these features make such a connector particularly advantageous in numerous fields, including the automotive industry and workshops using electronically controlled machine tools and/or robots.
Existing connection blocks of the above-defined type have some drawbacks. In particular, it happens that slabs are forced into position even when one of the terminals carried thereby has not been fully pushed home and has not snapped into place, either because forward movement of the slab causes the detent to be pushed back inwardly, or else because the detent is folded to such an extent that it breaks. In either case the terminal is no longer retained once the slab has been inserted.